Loyalty
by omegafire17
Summary: For a certain dog boy and cat girl, the former's partner makes things more complicated, and seems set to get between them as much as possible. Pseudo-followup to Romantic Opposites; Rated T.


**Disclaimer:** Don't own Naruto franchise, nor any of it's characters.

 **Rating:** T

 **As the summary said, a pseudo followup oneshot to 'Romantic Opposites', from the POV of the canine who didn't get as much screentime there; enjoy.**

* * *

His partner 'involved' with a female b- human... this really complicated things.

Akamaru gave off a short growl, trying to adjust where he lay to be more comfortable- why must humans regard the word 'bitch' as insulting, period? To him it's just the truth, as the one called Tamaki is a female, just as much as Kiba is male... there's no insulting involved, and yet if he could speak, just hearing it would probably invoke very-angry reactions from his partner-

-especially since he's now involved with her, _just like_ the others.

Even now he saw them, all finding mates left and right:

Naruto and Hinata- they amused him, as the latter had been very obvious, in the human way, yet the former hadn't gotten this until his estrous process finally caught up to him. He made up for things quickly however, only taking a few months to go from 'a kiss' to this mating-for-life they're so hung up on... odd as it all is, Naruto's swiftness did get his approval, as it'd have been very much like a dog's mating; a shame he isn't one. Sakura and Sasuke... he just didn't get, for the latter had been gone a long time, and done terrible things that weren't at all made up for the few good things he's done, while the female just seemed fanatically obsessed with her 'love'. Then again, he didn't think he desired to know those answers; he didn't particularly like Sasuke anyway, who reminded him more of an overly-threatening guard dog, who trusted nothing and barked a lot of noise when he made any sound at all - only his prowess made him dangerous. Shikamaru and Temari, just seemed like complete oddballs - most every word and action they said/did to each other, resembled barking and aggressive warnings to him, and yet somehow they held an attraction to each other... how on Earth did some humans tolerate, let alone like, mating that seemed so unpleasant on the outside?

Ino and Sai, they amused him too, very much; Ino looked a lot like a bitch - female dog, not an insult; he snorted - trying to get a potential mate into playing with her, so insistent about it she's practically yipping. Sai, a oddity among humans himself, didn't have a _clue_ what she's doing... or what anyone else is doing either, which caused much frustration; Akamaru grinned a little, remembering on a few occasions Kiba had been irritated with Sai's random comments. Choji and Karui... as the humans would say, 'jury's still out on that one', but that didn't apply to himself. Choji's best friends claimed he had a 'thing' for her, but the two of them denied it every time - the humans were having some difficulty deciding either way without proof, while he had little doubt they're 'involved', just secret about it, which made him roll his eyes. He might never be sure what they found attractive about each other though, considering the male's fat and/or big-boned (difficult to tell), and the female almost seemed to lack human frontal glands.

The only ones of the 'Konoha 11', as they simply called themselves (probably twelve now, if they were to include Sasuke), only Shino, Tenten, and Rock Lee were still 'single'. All the adults were naturally such as well, due to various reasons, and they were all proof that such focus on their training/jobs had made them strong-minded, and thus true shinobi - Kiba would be that strong too, if he only focused hard enough, being the only true one in his eyes that way (while the humans would see him as one, simply because he is one to them).

But... the moment his eyes locked with Tamaki's, he'd been too late; the two obviously had a strong mutual 'attraction' with each other.

And now it's probably too far gone to change things.

Akamaru stirred a bit, remembering all the times he'd opposed Tamaki joining Kiba (even if all they did was talk; humans loved that), or his partner being a 'gentleman' by insisting she have at least one friend, since she's not native to the village. His opposition wasn't because he disliked the female specifically - as far as humans go, she's nice and friendly, and brings great treats sometimes - but because her very presence was threatening Kiba's time and focus- being friends is one thing, but the potential for them to become 'mates' had heralded such measures. But now they'd become 'involved', thanks in part to Tamaki outright stating things to Kiba... he wanted to hate her for that, but her insistence on getting his opinion/approval first (and only actually 'making a move' once they had it, sorta) made that difficult. He and Kiba had made a lot of things clear after their talk, and despite his resistance, it's still true that his partner has his own say in the matter...

 _"Look, Akamaru; I still wanna be Hokage one day, and I'm not gonna stop training just because of Tamaki! Far from it! So what if I actually spend a little time with a woman, hmm? Having her support could easily motivate me even more than before, adding onto yours, and perhaps she could even suggest something that would help us. I dunno what at this moment, but it's a possibility."_

One reason among many included during their argument... or well, 'argument' gives the wrong impression; it was more of an intense discussion.

How amusing though; sounds like something a human would say.

So either way, they'd 'argued' themselves thoroughly, and Akamaru had run off to express everything - he'd needed time, but knew despite himself that his partner would probably choose to accept Tamaki's 'bold' approach; so he'd indicated Kiba best keep himself restrained, or he won't be happy. After running everything out, he'd returned to his partner's side, braced for the worse... but what he found was actually quite impressive; they were 'involved', but in an extremely subdued manner. By scent alone, he could tell they'd kissed and held hands (all humans practiced this; kinda their touching-noses and licking maneuvers)... on the former, done all of twice thus far, and once on the latter. Turns out he'd returned after only the one 'date', but the fact remained that unlike many of the others, they hadn't been 'all over each other' once they became involved.

Subtle observation over the next few weeks showed that, despite some awareness/adjustments about his presence, that's simply how they behaved around each other. Apparently they didn't need or want near-constant affections, and instead simply enjoyed being near each other, hearing the other talk... which did get a grudging acknowledgment from him.

Akamaru still intended to 'get in the way' whenever possible, but they were being reasonable about things.

/

 _Later_

"Haha, let's go, Akamaru!"

Akamaru still grinned, feeling the wind in his fur, and on his ears and tongue- he's gonna catch his partner with ease soon. He was being 'clever', jumping from tree to tree in a random fashion, but he's easy to track by scent even without Dynamic Marking - and bonus, Tamaki isn't joining in, currently watching from the ground. She could walk up a tree and propel herself distances like many ninja, but it had quickly became clear she had no chance of keeping up with them, speed-wise. While she could navigate a straight path, as she'd done among rooftops from her home place, navigating up/down tree branches while moving fast wasn't one of her skills.

Yet perhaps; if Kiba meant anything by his 'teaching' boasts, that might be next, and it'd give him plenty of opportunity to make sure she didn't slow his partner down.

"Let me guess, that's half-speed, dog boy?" Tamaki called up, hands cupped around her mouth - despite not following them in the air, she still kept herself in range on the ground, and with reasonable agility too. Not too surprising in that area, as she'd mentioned she'd trained several Ninja Cats... considering the obnoxious smell of catnip on her from 'work', it's obvious she could be fast; just lacked skill to take full advantage of it.

"You have no idea!" Kiba called down to her, grinning. "This is nothing, and I can even do it backwards; watch!"

Then to Akamaru's amusement, Kiba did just that; 'flying' backward, with only his peripheral vision and instincts telling him where to go. Clearly showing off, trying to impress his mate, at least he's being dog-like about it-

-by the slight change in smell, Tamaki was definitely worried, but not nearly as much as he'd thought.

"Just be careful" she called. "I don't want you to hurt yourself."

"I can take it, cat girl!" Kiba retorted, nimbly ducking under a branch without looking, even as Akamaru did the same a second later.

"I know that" Tamaki added, slightly teasing for a moment. "But even still."

Just as his partner opened his mouth to answer, Akamaru took advantage; their little talk may not have disrupted his concentration, but it had slowed Kiba down. Akamaru pounced on his partner, who initially realized this with a jolt, before suddenly ducking then running down the tree- he followed his every move, 'only' narrowly-missing twice before Kiba got ahead of him again.

Good.

By the end, he'd just about cornered Kiba up the top of the tree, but before he got there, his partner jumped off- straight to the ground, and in Tamaki's direction. Akamaru snorted a little at Kiba having made such an 'over-the-top' gesture, topping off his impressive antics... below, his mate was definitely more worried at his coming down from that height. But of course, it took more than that to stop his partner; Akamaru smelled his applying chakra to his feet, helping to absorb the upcoming impact and thus avoid injury. Despite this, his impact turned into a sliding one, kicking up great clouds of dust- Tamaki had to hold up her hands as it reached her, and then finally Kiba skidded to a stop just beside her.

Sensing incoming moments, Akamaru growled a little and quickly descended down the tree...

Tamaki waved away the dust clouds without much issue. "I get you're trying to impress me, but that was a little much" she said, almost playful. "What did I say about hurting yourself, dog boy?"

"But I didn't" Kiba pointed out, grinning. "And it worked, because that was child's play, cat girl, falling from that high up."

"Oh you..."

Admittedly, in that moment neither Kiba nor Tamaki looked to be doing anything more than staring at each other (enjoying the moment)... but despite this, Kiba let out an involuntary sound when Akamaru pointedly pulled him back, warning him.

"Hey, that wasn't even remotely romantic, Akamaru" his partner grumbled, arms crossed.

Tamaki giggled. "No, but it was a moment; he's resistant to those" she said, glancing at him in a knowing way; Akamaru ignored her playful look and just continued on trying to drag Kiba away from her.

They still had that game to finish.

...

"So, enjoying yourself?"

She considered, though obviously the female was only pretending to do so. "Aside from your solo games, which I couldn't join in, yes I did" Tamaki admitted, hands behind her back with a smile.

Kiba waved a hand. "If you want to learn how to navigate at high-speeds, I'm available" he boasted, grinning a little. "It'd make things much better, with you able to join in on our games."

A little 'lidded' look. "I'll consider it" she promised, before digging into her pack. "Still, I think Akamaru deserves a treat for winning a good portion of those games."

At that, Akamaru perked up; he certainly wasn't gonna turn down treats, and his tail wagging reflected that. Still with a smile, Tamaki playfully made it 'difficult' for him, via throwing them into the air- he still caught them with ease, chewing with all abandon and quite enjoying their taste-

-too late though, he realized just what she'd truly done.

In that moment he'd jumped/ate the treats, Tamaki had quickly moved toward Kiba - who didn't know what was going on - and then kissed him, much to his surprise. Once he realized this, Akamaru turned with a small warning growl- Kiba clearly hadn't planned this, being all of Tamaki's idea, but still Kiba wasn't against what was happening.

Once she pulled away (Kiba's face slightly redder, along with dazed), Tamaki laughed a little. "Don't get me that look, either of you" she teased, glanced at him. "How else was I gonna show affection with Akamaru around?"

Kiba made several sounds, clearly struggling (but having liked it), which included quickly turning around to hide his expression- even rubbing his head, trying to look like he's playing it off, when in fact he doesn't know what to do. Tamaki glanced at his with a knowing glance, but mainly looked at him, not at all apologetic about what she'd done- which despite himself, Akamaru also grudgingly acknowledged her for.

As his partner went on about, she's definitely good - she had to be, just to be even _slightly_ worthy of his attention, emphasis on 'slightly' thus far.

"Come on, Akamaru" she assured, stepping a bit closer. "You know I had to try, right?"

Not a motion did he make.

"Well, I hope you'll accept us soon" Tamaki whispered to him only, bending down to eye-level. She didn't try to rub his ears or anything, another example of grudging acknowledgement, as her experience in training Ninja Cats mean she already saw his intelligence, and cared about his opinions.

To her statement, he just glanced away; no denials, no promises.

"Look uh-" Kiba said, sounding awkward but forcing himself through it. "Anyway, it's getting late and all" he continued, despite it not actually being late at all. "We gotta get home, and Tamaki you- you still gotta get prepared for your internship work stuff, right?"

Bending back up, Tamaki nodded. "Yeah" she breathed, before holding her hand up. "See you both later?"

Still trying to pretend he's fine, Kiba didn't 'exactly' look as he reached forward, touching their hands together in the 'holding' affection that was common. It went on a few seconds, including a bit of interlocking, before Akamaru gave off his small warning growl that they're pushing it-

-they immediately let go, getting familiar with the routine.

"Yeah" Kiba said, shrugging his shoulders to her ('apologizing' for him, hmph). "We'll see you later, Tamaki. Good luck."

"Thanks, Kiba."

Just like that, after another second of looking at each other, Tamaki inclined her head and started walking away. Still kinda staring after her, Kiba was slow in getting on his back, until Akamaru nudged him rather hard-

-"Gah! Okay, I get it, Akamaru. Geez" Kiba groused, but only half-annoyed as he climbed on. "Can't even let us enjoy a moment once, can you?"

Akamaru just grinned.

* * *

 **And here I thought Kiba was 'hard' to nail down lol :P Not to mention having made this fic in literally a day...**

 **But all that aside, making a chapter from Akamaru's POV was certainly interesting - different view of humans, their processes, and etc. Also kinda funny, given his non-human view of the b-word (no insults to the characters intended on my part), and his more-unflattering view of the others despite overall liking/working with them, hehe.** **I'm also pretty sure I got his protectiveness down, just like in 'Romantic Opposites', while still making the three-way process between them overall realistic.**

 **Meanwhile, this followup is also a hint that next up, I've got an M-rated 'moment' for KibaXTamaki in the works ;)**


End file.
